Two Parties and a Funeral (Sequel to Resurfaced)

Chapter 5

I have only gone to a handful of surprise parties throughoout my lifetime. One thing that most of them have in common is the moment of absolute chaos seconds before the birthday boy/girl enters the room. Jungkook's surprise party was no different. We were all over the place. Luckily, we all hid ourselves in time before the door knoob turned.

V aand Jungkook had only hung their coats on the stand, when we all jumped out screaming our ears hoarse, with Rapmonster holding a pretty blue cake with twenty two candles. I still have a priceless photograph of what the boy's face looked like when the initial shock was replaced by pleasant surprise. That's one thing in Korea you definitely have to get used to- people will and can be as loud as they like. Pleased with the success of our surprise, I began to sing the Birthday song on cue. ''Happ-''

Well, of course they would be singing in Korean! It was I, who was in surprise when the combined voices of the rest singing something sounding like 'Chaugil amitha', and drowned my voice. Unsurprisedly, Nina was singing along with them. Jungkook seemed at a loss for words. Quite honestly I was not expecting that he would be quite so flabbergasted as he looked, since the boys seem to have a surprise party everytime. If you really think about, seven times a year! If one was to consider a group with thirteen members or more... Well, let me just leave it at that. I have a nasty habit of getting distracted.

Midway through the singing, the boys were hammering at the poor birthday boy, wishing him 'happy birthday' through it. I realized that it was a sort of tradition among them. I could recall watching some previous videos J-Hope showed me of someone else's party, and the poor fellow recieved a similar beating. Having had no previous way of wishing him, I went over to Jungkook when the boys moved away and shook hands with him, wished him and following protocol, I gave two thumps on is back. Now while the latter meekly recieved the beating from his band-mates as part of the party, the moment I smacked him, his eyes bulged out of his head, and by bulged, I really mean bulged. The boy is very shy around women, and it took me moments to realize that perhaps the skinship was reserved for them alone. Leave it to me to get everything wrong. Nina was holding back tears of laughter, and V looked as embarassed as Jungkook for some reason. J-Hope simply winked at me.

Right after I moved aside, Hitman Bang patted Jungkook on the shoulder and gave him a small speech about how proud he was of how far he had come through his career. Well, at least that was what it looked like. The boy seemed to be overflowing with emotion just then, so I figured that it meant something along those lines.

Soon it was time for presents. Now, one other thing I learnt about Korean customs is that they give people the most useful gifts. Once, me and Nina were given this sort of welcome in the office with a party of sorts. I was gifted with a bag of flour. At first I was not quite sure what it was meant for. It was later that Nina explained to me the concept of useful presents. If you take me, the only presents I could come up with are probably accessories or clothes. Which was exactly what I ended up getting Jungkook for his birthday- a beautiful red scarf. Needless to say, he received several sets of underwear from the others. (Rapmonster and J-Hope, if you must know)

When it was finally my turn to give away my gift, I was quite offended when Jungkook actually said 'no, thank you.' Twice! Once again, Nina came to my rescue. ''No, no, Jane!'' she said, tugging at my arm. ''It's another custom over here that you refuse your gift twice, before you finally accept it on the third persuasion.''

''Uh huh,'' I pouted, still sour, but slightly soothed. ''And he did not refuse the others, but the custom applies to me alone!''

''No, no,'' Jungkook now replied, while bowing at me hastily. ''It is because I am so close with these guys, so I don't find it necessary to do it for them. It was a show of respect for you, noona.''

At the word respect, I nodded dignifiedly and gave it to the petrified looking boy. who took it without question, and proceeded to bow several more times.

''I'll get it!'' V cried when the doorbell rang. My interest was not piqued at the time, I assumed it was another one of the boys' friends. Much to my surprise, Nina gave a yell of surprise and excitement and hurtled herself to the figure that had entered the room with V. The American-looking guy laughed at the enthusiastic greeting and swung her around, before he set her on the ground.

''What's up man!'' Rapmonster embraced the new-comer in a half-handshake, half-hug, that seems all the rage with the 'cool guys.'

''All good, man.''

''Yo man!'' V exclaimed, not wanting to be left out, and elicited chuckles from us all.

''Alex,'' Jungkook recognized his presence with a smile and a small bow. So this was the Alex I had heard so much about, I thought to myself.

Just as I had the above thoughts, the latter noticed me. ''Ah, you must be mom's replacement,'' he said with an amused look. ''Jenny, huh?''

''Jane,'' I corrected unamused.

''Hmph,'' Alex shrugged nonchalantly and turned his attention back onto the birthday boy. ''I say, was it just me, or did you have a birthday bus?''

Jungkook looked perplexed and simply stared at Alex for further explanation.

''See, I was pretty tired and half asleep as I was on my way here from the airport. Guess what I saw! There was like an entire bus that had your picture on it and it said 'Happy Birthday Jungkook.' Now don't get me wrong, but I had no idea whose birthday it was.'' Jimin giggled at that and smacked Jungkook on what looked like- his behind. ''I just knew that you guys were celebrating someone's birthday. It was the birthday bus that informed me.''

Minutes later, while everyone was chatting amongst themselves, Alex got everyone's attention. He and Rapmonster looked teasingly at Nina and J-Hope, who as usual sat a little further away from the rest of them, speaking in softened tones with each other.

''So,' Alex said, with a large grin. ''Look's like J-Hope has got our girl secured for himself.'' The couple looked around embarrassedly, muttering something incoherent.

''Alex,'' Nina began, trying to get away from the new topic as soon as possible. ''We should get your bags to your room.''

''I can do it,'' I offered, hoping that someone else would offer to take over. I had eaten way too much cake and honestly felt too lazy to move an inch.

''I'll do it,'' Nina replied, standing up.

''Nahh,'' Alex waved her down. With a smug expression, he turned to me. ''Jenny wanted to do it. Right?''

I cursed him internally and glared at him when no one was looking. Another person I would not get along with it would seem. It was not over an hour since we met, and he somehow managed to get under my skin. ''Jane,'' I mumbled for the second time.